


Kid

by Stella_Notecor



Series: Soulnames [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 11:52:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13410696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stella_Notecor/pseuds/Stella_Notecor
Summary: Leonard was the chief medical officer. He’d seen everyone’s soulnames.The only crewmember whose name he hadn’t seen was Pavel’s. And that was only because the kid still hadn’t gotten his yet.Which was why he still showed up in Leonard’s sickbay every three months with more bedpartners to report.





	Kid

**Author's Note:**

> Another soulmate AU? Yep! My brain won't stop!

Leonard McCoy didn’t consider himself to be a particularly “sexual” human being.

It took more than looks to attract him to someone; he needed friendship, a relationship, before he had any interest in bedding someone.

Jocelyn was his best friend in high school. He’d fallen for her, hard, and they’d gotten married before they turned twenty. His dad told him he was stupid for not waiting for his soulname. Leonard told him he didn’t need a soulname to know he loved Jocelyn.

Her name showed up when they were twenty-two. _Jocelyn_. Nothing special, nothing different. But it was how Leonard thought about her, so it was perfect.

His name showed up when they were twenty-nine. _Leo_. It was wrong. She’d always called him Len. Even when she was screaming at him for spending another night at the hospital working instead of at home with her, she called him Len.

She was the one who filed for divorce. _Incompatible soulnames_.

All he ended up with was a suitcase of clothes, _Leo_ , and his own fucking bones.

* * *

 

The kid was seventeen. Seven-fucking-teen.

Leonard had never met anyone so attractive in his life.

He didn’t know if it was the quick smile or the quicker mind. He hoped to hell it wasn’t the _seventeen_ thing. He’d go out back and shoot himself before he became _that_.

But Pavel Chekov was the only person Leonard had ever met that made him dream of heated kisses and long nights.

Jim called him demisexual once. Something about only wanting to fuck people he loved.

Leonard blamed it on being born in the South. Romance still meant something there, goddammit.

Neither reason explained why he wanted to topple a _kid_ into the nearest bed.

* * *

 

One dull, dreary night in-between two “busy work” missions the kid wandered into his sickbay.

“What do you want, kid?” he asked, his mind focused on _17, 17, 17_ and not the soft curls framing a kissable face.

Fluttering eyelashes landed on pale cheeks. The kid didn’t meet his eyes. “I would like to be tested for STDs, sir.”

Seven-fucking-teen! Leonard grabbed his chin and forced him to look up. “Who the hell touched you?” That person would be out of the ‘fleet in hours—the age of consent was 18 on every Federation planet. That, plus a certain medication he knew of, would keep them from _ever_ touching the kid again.

Eyes wide, the kid waved his arms around wildly. “Nyet! No one! My birthday is next week. I would like to… celebrate. But to be safe.”

Leonard released his chin. The kid would be legal in a week. Leonard wouldn’t mind helping him celebrate…

Shit, shit, shit. “Fine.” Not fine. “Lay down. I’ll have to draw some blood for the tests.”

* * *

 

Why the hell did the kid always pick _him_?

Pavel Chekov showed up for a standard STD screening every three months. Without fail. And he asked for Leonard to administer it Every. Fucking. Time.

The standard questions never changed, but the answers sometimes did.

“How many new partners have you been with since your last screening?”

“Seven.”

Leonard didn’t let the green monster affect him. Really, he didn’t. The kid could have sex with anyone he wanted and Leonard had no say in the matter.

Except that Leonard was his doctor, and actually, he had a lot to say about this.

“Are you trying to catch something, kid?”

Pavel straightened up on the biobed. “I am twenty years old next week, Doctor.”

“And what’s that got to do with the price of eggs in China?”

“I am not a kid.” He tapped his chest. “I will be getting my soulname.”

Leonard snorted. “Good luck with that. Didn’t get mine till twenty-nine. And again, what’s that got to do with you sleeping with seven women in three months?”

The kid had to go and fucking blush. As if that wasn’t the most adorable damn thing Leonard had ever seen.

“I want to find my soulmate.”

And goddammit, Leonard remembered being twenty-years-old and in love with love.

“Kid, that’s not the way to find a soulmate. You need to find someone who realizes you’re as gorgeous on the inside as you are on the outside.”

“I am… gorgeous?”

How could he sit there with those deep hazel eyes and doubt that? Twenty-years-old and he was still a goddamn kid.

“Yeah, you are. Now lay down, I’m gonna draw extra blood this time. Hopefully you haven’t given yourself a case of the Andorian blue balls.” Leonard grabbed a collection unit. “They don’t turn blue, you know. Purple actually. And then you bleed from your urethra. And your anus. And your eyes. Goddamn space…”

* * *

 

Two years in deep space and Leonard was going stir crazy.

At least Jim had made an official exception to the moratorium on alcohol for the night. The kid was turning twenty-one, and every bottle of booze hidden on the ship had been pulled out for the celebration.

Scotch in hand, Leonard settled back in a chair and watched the crew make fools of themselves. None of them could hold their liquor.

Jim was cockblocking Uhura by trying to keep Spock’s attention all to himself. When would he finally realize he was in love with the pointy-eared bastard? And that Spock loved him back? After all, there was no one else on board who called him _Jim_ and _Captain_ quite like Spock…

Leonard was the chief medical officer. He’d seen everyone’s soulnames. He’d already figured out a good ten soulname couples were onboard and had yet to match up.

Not that he’d tell them. Patient confidentiality and all that horseshit.

The only crewmember whose name he hadn’t seen was Pavel’s. And that was only because the kid still hadn’t gotten his yet.

Which was why he still showed up in Leonard’s sickbay every three months with more bedpartners to report.

Which was also why the kid had downed fourteen shots in the last two hours and was leering at anything that moved. Sulu was equally drunk and in no shape to keep him from making stupid decisions.

Hell.

Leonard dragged his old bones across the room and looped his arm around the kid’s waist. “Come on. Let’s get you to sickbay _before_ you vomit.”

“I want to party!”

“Doctor’s orders. Move.”

“Aye, sir…” The kid nearly collapsed into him, wrapping his arms around Leonard’s neck and nuzzling into his shoulder.

Leonard wanted to lean down and bury his nose in Pavel’s soft curls, but instead he dragged the kid out of the rec room and down to sickbay. Once he got some fluids into him, and a liver booster, the kid would be fine. Probably wouldn’t even wake up with a hangover.

Maneuvering Pavel over to a biobed was easy. Getting him to lay down was not.

“You’ve got to let go, kid.”

Pavel must have been an octopus in another life. He clung to Leonard’s neck. “Not a kid, Leonard McCoy.”

Huh. That was the first time he’d called Leonard by name. Unlike the “len-erd” pronunciation he preferred, the kid’s Russian accent made it sound like “leo-nard”. Which was giving him flashbacks to being called “Nards” in school. Because obviously anything that sounded like a word for testicles was hilarious.

“You can call me McCoy. Or ‘Len-nerd’, if you must. But none of this ‘Leo-nard’ crap.”

Pavel looked up at him with those innocent eyes that had tempted nearly fifty women into bed at his last report. Eyes that still made Leonard want to kiss him six ways to Sunday.

“I think I will call you Leo.”

McCoy shoved him onto the biobed. “You’re drunk, kid.”

Hands shaking, he left the room. To get a hypospray of course. And not because his heart was beating like a drum underneath the name _Leo_.

No one had _ever_ called him that. He was Leonard. Or Len. Or McCoy. Or Bones. Or Doctor. Or any combination of the above.

Stupid Russians and their stupid pronunciations. The kid wasn’t his soulmate. He just had a crappy grasp on Standard.

* * *

 

Two weeks later, Pavel was back in his sickbay.

Leonard started with the questions.

“How many new partners have you had since your last screening?”

“Three.”

Leonard didn’t scowl at that. He didn’t.

“What gender and species were they?”

“Two human females.” Pavel blushed, something he hadn’t done in a while. He’d spent the first few screenings as red as a tomato.

“And the third was…?”

“I had oral sex. With a human male.”

Oh, Lord.

Pavel had always reported having sex with women. It was one of the few things that kept Leonard from pressing him into a biobed and taking him hard and fast.

That and the fourteen year age gap.

Leonard focused on his PADD, his voice gruff as he replied, “Nothing to be embarrassed about, kid. I’ve always played for both sides.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” He’d only slept with three people total. But gender hadn’t mattered to him. What mattered was that he loved them. Except his last relationship had ended four years ago, and now all he had was his right hand and dreams of Pavel.

And now he would have dreams of Pavel giving a human male a blow-job.

Shit.

* * *

 

Another year later, after nearly dying _again_ , they were back in the black.

Leonard didn’t know why he stayed. Or how he was alive.

Or why Pavel Chekov was standing in his office.

“Your appointment is next week, kid.”

Pavel splayed a hand over his heart. “I woke up with my soulname.”

“Congratulations.” Leonard grabbed his PADD. “I’ll update your profile. Is it _Pavel_?”

The kid crossed his arms. “Yes, _Leo_ … that’s one of them.”

Leonard’s stomach churned. Pavel hadn’t called him Leo since his twenty-first birthday. Hearing it again made him want things that couldn’t happen.

“You got two names?”

“I did.”

“Well?”

“Look and see.” Pavel stripped off his shirt and dumped it on the ground.

Scribbled across his chest were two words.

_Pavel_

_Kid_

No. No, no, no, nononononono.

“I’ll record those in your file. Is there anything else?”

Pavel stepped over his shirt and around Leonard’s desk. “I showed you mine. Now you show me yours.” He leaned into Leonard’s personal space. “Leo.”

“That would not be profess—“

Pavel grabbed the bottom of Leonard’s shirt and yanked it up.

And there is was. _Leo_.

“I knew it!”

Leonard yanked his shirt back down. “I could write you up for that!”

The kid crossed his arms. “There is only one person on this entire ship who still calls me _kid_. You are my soulmate.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, _Leo_ , you are.” Pavel leaned forward, intruding on Leonard’s personal space. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Anything about what?”

“When I called you Leo before! You ignored me!”

Leonard shoved his chair away from the desk, putting more space between them. “You were drunk! And twenty-one!”

“I was in love with you!”

The words hung heavy in the air between them.

“Me?”

Pavel threw his hands up into the air. “Why do you think I spent the last four years telling you about my sex life? I wanted you to realize I was an adult! I wanted you to get jealous!”

“Me?”

Leaning over Leonard, Pavel put his hands on the arms of the chair, trapping him. “Do you remember the first time I came in? Seventeen and untouched? I wanted you to show me what sex was.”

“Kid, you don’t know what you’re—“

Pavel straddled Leonard’s legs, taking a seat in his lap. “I am not a fucking kid.”

And then they were kissing.

Years of practice not touching the kid were forgotten in an instant. Leonard grabbed his hips and pulled him close. He ran his hands up Pavel’s bare back. He was soft skin and hard muscles.

Leonard broke the kiss. “I’m too old for this. For you.”

Pavel rocked their groins together. “For years, I told you how many women I’d slept with and you still called me a kid.”

“I thought you were straight.”

“I tried to be. Because every time I went out with a man, all I could think was that he wasn’t you. He wasn’t my Leo.”

Leonard groaned as Pavel ground down into him.

“Do you know, I have never let a man take me?” The kid wriggled in his lap. “I saved that experience for you.”

“Hell.”

“I nearly gave up. Until I saw my soulnames. And then I knew I just needed to make myself clear.” He pressed their foreheads together. “You are my soulmate, Leo. And I want you to fuck me.”

“Kid…” Leonard couldn’t catch his breath. “You can’t… you don’t want this. Not me.”

“I do. And I will not give up until I get you… or you tell me no.”

No. That was all he had to say and then the kid would walk away.

He looked down at Pavel’s bare chest.

_Kid._

He couldn’t believe it, but it had to be true. He’d spent so long thinking of Pavel as a kid to try to distance himself. In the end, they could have spent the last four years together.

Except they couldn’t have.

“I wanted you, but you were, are, so young. You need to get to know yourself outside of a relationship. You need to grow up.”

“Leo, I am all grown up.”

He would always be “the kid” to Leonard. The kid who saved lives. The kid who flew starships. The kid who stole his heart.

But he was also Pavel. A gorgeous young man who was, for some insane reason, Leonard’s soulmate.

“I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you,” he confessed softly.

“Good. Because I am still very much in love with you.”

At thirty-six years old, Leonard finally had his soulmate.

Well, he’d always been a late bloomer.

Leonard pushed Pavel away. “As much as I want you, I’m still on duty. My cabin, 1400 hours?”

Pavel grinned. “I will prepare myself.”

“Prepare?”

Pavel rolled his eyes. “With lubrication and a dildo, of course. No wonder flirting never worked.”

“Oh, God.”

Pavel stood up and patted him on the cheek. “Not God. Just Pavel… or kid.” He sauntered out of the room.

Leonard had never considered himself an overly sexual human being.

He had a feeling that was about to change.


End file.
